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Treatment & Therapies – Medications

Posted Jun 25 2011 1:47am

Okay here’s the big dog, medication. It’s the main treatment for Bipolar/Bipolar II disorder. Some embrace it, others loathe it and some are still on the fence. Whether you are for or against it, we still need to talk about it.

There are several types of medications that are used for treating this disorder. Mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, anitdepressants and sleeping aids. Let’s touch base on each of them.

Mood stabilizers - These are usually the main type of medication prescribed to those with this disorder. They greatly help with mood swings and delay or minimize the up’s and down’s, sometimes both.

Antipsychotics – These help with mania/hypomania. Sometimes they’re only given during a manic episode and sometimes ones are given them to take full time as maintenance. It mainly depends on how severe your mania is which of course varies greatly from person to person.

Antidepressants – These of course help with your depression. Depression is a constant factor with this disorder. When mood stabilizers don’t quite do it with the depression, antidepressants come into play.

Sleep aids – These aren’t typically thought of as a treatment for this disorder. At times however ones experience constant insomnia and these are needed. I’ve talked before about how important sleep is when it comes to stabilizing yourself. So at times sleep aids play an important role.

I’m by no means recommending a certain treatment or drug. I’m just putting all your options out there. However, medication has been key for me personally. I can’t stress how important it is to find the right doctor for you and be open and honest with them throughout the medication process. It seems like a long, hard and never ending journey at times. Soon I’ll talk about my personal struggle with it (I’ll try not to bore you). How is your medication process going?

Tomorrow we will have a guest post. She talks about her personal journey with her disorder and medication. I think you’ll enjoy it.